Learning L3 through L2

[arthaey]

I agree with @garyb: I've intentionally sought out "cómo aprender francés" resources to use Spanish to learn French. I'm excited to learn "only" (HA HA) the differences between the two Romance languages, rather than have to wade through unnecessary-for-me explanations about how it differs from English.

[tarvos]

I've found that a lot of stuff I use just comes from local sources. For example, to learn Basque I'd need to know Spanish (and I do).

[arthaey]

I've found that a lot of stuff I use just comes from local sources. For example, to learn Basque I'd need to know Spanish (and I do).

That's another good point! I picked up some books in Spanish for learning Zapotec and Nahuatl while in Mexico.

[Serpent]

I do this a lot, but nowadays mostly with dictionaries and parallel texts. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that this use helps L2 feel more familiar and natural. However, nowadays I often find even L2-based textbooks boring

[crush]

I've found that a lot of stuff I use just comes from local sources. For example, to learn Basque I'd need to know Spanish (and I do).

That's another good point! I picked up some books in Spanish for learning Zapotec and Nahuatl while in Mexico.

That's not exactly the case anymore with great resources like "The Basque Language: A Practical Introduction", the Ikasten.net course (has an English translation), and some nice grammars such as "A Student Grammar of Euskara" and the enormous (over a thousand pages long) "Standard Basque: A Progressive Grammar". But there are definitely more resources available in Spanish (and French), though not always of the best quality.

[tarvos]

Unfortunately, I don't usually wade through thick tomes of grammar in order to learn languages! I think I own one gigantic grammar book, and that's for Russian, one of the few languages I've studied to high C levels. I do not even own such grammars for French or German or Spanish, and when I do own grammars they are usually small and compact.

I'm talking about resources with language I would actually use in the Basque Country, given I live close to the border.

[crush]

I get your point, i'm not huge on grammars either, though for Basque cases and verbs i find myself checking it from time to time. Also, despite its name, "The Basque Language: A Practical Introduction" is pretty thorough and very colloquial (there are even a couple curse words introduced). The Ikasten course also covers levels A1 up to B2. I've met a few people who've finished the Ikasten course as their only study material and they all spoke (or at least wrote) pretty well. It might be different for a language like Occitan or Galician (or if you don't speak English), but fortunately Basque also has some good study materials available in English as well as Spanish

[pratishabda]

My French is good enough for me to use Assimil courses, which allows me to approach some languages I want to study with limited (or simply bad) English resources. This also allows me to keep up with my French without really trying, so it's a win-win approach in my opinion.

If you're at a point where you can read more or less comfortably in your L2, the only real caveat comes when learning grammar that exists in your L1 and L3, but not in your L2. This sometimes leads to some roundabout, convoluted grammar epiphanies.